


Bucky, Natasha and ‘The Sleepover’

by elliott (amywaited)



Series: Bucky, Natasha and the '...' [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Brotp, Cute, Makeovers, Oneshit, Oneshot, Titanic - Freeform, and were all very supportive, bucky is Trying New Things, facemasks, i love them, my favs, natasha is the bomb dot com, sleepover, sleepover etiquette, sleepover things, steve is so cool, the ultimate friends, tony is rad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 01:56:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13730673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amywaited/pseuds/elliott
Summary: Natasha like bubble bath, eating fake russian biscuits and hanging out with one James Bucky Barnes. They have a blast.





	Bucky, Natasha and ‘The Sleepover’

**Author's Note:**

> just a small little plot bunny thing. enjoy it!
> 
> note: this could be read as stucky (if you squint?) even though i tagged it as stony. thats because of one small little sentence somewhere at the end. if you choose to look beyond that sentence, then just read it as whichever ship you like.

Natasha likes bubble baths.

Thats the first thing Bucky notices when he moves into the Avengers Tower. They’re all wary around him, except for Natasha. She invites him to her floor and makes him coffee and gives him shop-bought fake Russian biscuits. They’re nice though, so he doesn’t complain.

She asks him about how he likes the tower, and if he likes the 21st century.

“They’re both okay,” he says. “Overwhelming.”

She smiles. “Takes some getting used to?”

He agrees. She gives him another biscuit.

“Can I use your bathroom?” He asks, after several more cups of coffee. Its going a little cold, but Natasha makes it with chocolate and cinnamon. Bucky thinks that he will have to start making his coffee with chocolate and cinnamon too.

“Of course,” she says and points down the hall. “Through there.”

He knows where it is. All the apartments are built on the same basic plan, so his bathroom is in roughly the same place.

She has a shelf above her bath with lots of coloured bottles on. Bucky stares at them for a while, after he’s done. There’s some that are pastel, muted pinks and reds that must be shower creams and gels. He smells them. They’re nice. Strawberry, raspberry and peach.

She has two shampoo bottles. They’re the same, one is nearly empty and the other full. They smell like pomegranate and vanilla. Her conditioner is the same.

There are a few bottles and pots that he doesn’t recognise. Body butter. Moisturiser. He doesn’t smell these ones.

Her bubble bath collection is quite extensive, he realises, after noting that these products take up over two thirds of her shelf. They all have different names too. Some say “Stress relief”, others say “Pain relief.” “Relaxing lavender”, has been used the most. He smells three (the lavender one, a lemon one, and “rosemary and eucalyptus”. He wonders why someone would want to smell like the plant a koala eats) before Natasha comes looking for him.

“Bucky?” She’s calling. She’s the first person to start calling him Bucky, other then Steve. But Steve is on a relaxing, four week holiday somewhere. He needs a break. “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” He replies. “I’m sorry. I was looking at your bubbles.”

Natasha chuckles. “Can I come in?”

Bucky opens the door. “Why do you want to smell like koala food?”

Natasha smiles. “Its relaxing. Do you like bubble baths?”

Bucky frowns and racks his memory. “I don’t know. I’ve never had one.”

Natasha picks one of the bottles up (shea butter and ginger). “Smell. You can borrow it, if you want. Try a bubble bath.”

He smells it. Its nice. “How?”

“How what?”

“How do you make it bubble?”

Natasha crosses over to the sink. “Here. We can have a mini bubble bath and I’ll show you.”

“A bubble sink,” Bucky says. He laughs.

Natasha laughs too, turning the faucet on and putting the plug in. “Yes. A bubble sink.”

She pours some of the cream in, once there’s a little bit of water in the sink. The water running from the tap does some of the bubble-ing, but Natasha starts to froth it with her hand.

“Want to try?” She asks, shaking her hand off.

Bucky steps up to the sink. He mimics Natasha’s hand motion. The water bubbles.

“Cool.”

Natasha grins. “Cool.”

  
Bucky took the bubble bath (the shea butter and ginger one) back to his floor. He used it that night, too. Bubble baths were good, he decided.

He has a bubble bath the next day too. He washes his hair and gets bubble in his ear. It makes everything sound crackly.

 

“Sergeant Barnes.”

Bucky tries not to jump at the voice of the building.

“You have a message from Ms Romanoff. Would you like me to read it?”

Bucky nods. Then feels stupid for nodding to a building.

“It reads ‘You free today? Up for some fun? Natasha.’” The building says. “How would you like me to reply?”

“Tell her.. ‘I’m free. What are we doing?’”

He wasn’t free today, actually. He had planned to go down to Stark because his metal arm was malfunctioning a bit. But nothing he couldn’t handle. And hanging out with his only other friend at the tower was more important, right?

“Of course, sergeant. She says she will drop by to collect you in ten minutes.”

Ten minutes. Shit. Bucky chugs the rest of his coffee (chocolate and cinnamon-ny, like Natasha makes it), and brushes his teeth.

“Well, hello tiger,” Natasha says from his door.

Bucky looks up in confusion and Natasha throws him a shirt.

Bucky glances at his bare chest before blushing. “Thanks. What are we doing?”

“Shopping,” Natasha says. “And don’t worry. Tony’s paying.”

Tony? Oh- right. Stark. “Are you sure?”

“He said its fine.”

Bucky’s pretty sure he didn’t say that. But its Natasha, so if Tony did find out, there’s no way either of them would get in trouble. Natasha would take the blame from Bucky, and Tony would be too scared of Natasha to stand up to her. Bucky didn’t blame him.

“Okay,” Bucky says. “Okay.”

 

Natasha has dragged him to several shops already. They didn’t even stay in them long enough to buy things, and Bucky felt a little bit like he was in a whirlwind. Shopping with Natasha was like shopping with a hurricane. A less dangerous (debatable) hurricane that didn’t inflict as much damage (also debatable).

Natasha doesn’t have any bags yet, but Bucky is certain that if she did, he would be carrying them. She is a forceful woman.

“Right, then. Do you have your nose ready?” She asks.

“What for?”

Natasha leads him to the front door of a shop. It smells. “This.”

It smells like flowers. And chalk. Powdery. Its strong. “Um.”

Natasha grins. “Exactly. Come on.”

She pulls him into it (he barely manages not to choke on the air) and he looks around in awe.

“What are they?”

“Bath bombs,” Natasha says. “Look, here’s an example demo.”

An employee is discussing one of the bath bombs with a small crowd. They’re gathered around a bucket of water.

Natasha fits them into the crowd easily, holding Bucky’s forearm.

“.. This bomb is smooth, relaxing and stress relieving. There are hidden notes of lavender to aid sleeping, too,” the employee is explaining, holding up a pale purple bomb. Its plain, but pretty. She drops it into the bucket.

Bucky stretches to watch it. It fizzes and gurgles and spins in the water. He watches open mouthed.

Natasha smiles at him. “Like it?”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” Natasha admits. “I just think they’re fun, and nice. We can get you some. And some of your own bubble bath, too.”

Bucky turns to grin at her. “Okay. Do I smell them?”

“Yep. Choose a couple that you like.”

In the end, he has a basket of five different bath bombs. He returns to Natasha, where she’s sniffing a little pot of crystal-ly pink something, and smiles.

“Whats that?” He asks.

“This? Bubblegum lip scrub. It makes your lips smooth.” She holds it up to his nose.

Bucky sniffs and recoils. “Gross.”

“I know right?” She says, but she puts it in his basket anyway. Bucky doesn’t understand why you would put something you don’t like in the basket to buy.

“Have you found the bubble bars yet?”

“The.. what?”

“Bubble bars,” Natasha says. “Like bath bombs, but they make bubbles. Like bubble bath in the shape of bath bombs.”

Bucky must look confused.

“Here,” Natasha says, rolling her eyes and handing him an oval-ish bar. Its pink and white. There are more, red and yellow and blue and white. He smells it.

“Nice.”

Natasha puts it in his basket. She puts another three bars (different flavours each time) in.

“There’s some on sticks too,” she says.

Wow, Bucky thinks. Wow.

She hands him a pink flamingo. And a pink star.

He puts them both in, too. Mostly because he likes the flamingo, but they smell alright too.

Natasha has a bottle of dark purple shower gel in her left hand. “Do you need shower gel?” She asks.

Bucky shakes his head, so she just puts hers in.

“You want anything else?”

Bucky shakes his head again.

“Wanna go home?”

Home. That would be nice. He nods.

Natasha pays quickly. The cashier stares at her (and him, probably) but Bucky only notices the eyes on Natasha. He’s alert instantly. Watching for threats.

She must notice, because Natasha smiles at the cashier and leads him out quickly. She even says no to photos. Why would they want a photo, thinks Bucky.

“You alright there, Bucky?”

Bucky nods. “Sorry. Don’t like staring.”

Natasha agrees. She looks sympathetic. “Me neither. We can keep you away from it for now.”

“Isn’t it better to face your fear?”

“To face it, you have to get to a more stable mental place,” she explains. “You’re very.. vulnerable right now. We have to be careful what we expose you to, because anything could set off the soldier.”

He understands. “Right.”

“Are you hungry?”

They go to eat noodles in the food court. It was busy, but Natasha manages to clear a two table wide radius round the two of them, so there is space and quiet. Bucky eats vegetable fried noodles and caramel chicken. Its sticky.

“You ever had this before?” Natasha asks.

“No.”

“It’s good though, right?” She has egg fried rice and sweet and sour chicken. She lets Bucky try a piece of chicken. Its sweet, and a little bit spicy. But mostly sweet.

“Yes. Its good,” Bucky says. He slurps a noodle.

 

Bucky decides that bath bombs are almost as good as bubble bath.

Then he wonders whether he can do both, so he stares at the bottle of bubble bath and a bath bomb. His eyes move from one to the other.

“Are you alright, Mr Barnes?”

Bucky starts. “Yes. Can you ask Natasha if you can use bubbles and bombs?”

“Of course, sir.”

Bucky waits in silence for a minute.

“She says you can,” Jarvis says.

Bucky puts a bath bomb and bubble bath in the bath. Fizzy and bubbly. Cool.

 

Steve gets back. The floor they share is not so quiet anymore. It wasn’t quiet to begin with, really, because Natasha was always there. Sometimes she brought Clint Barton with her and he would sit on Bucky’s counters and stare at her.

“Where are you going, Buck?” Steve asks as he watches Bucky drag his duvet and pillow into the elevator.

“Natasha,” Bucky says shortly.

“What?”

“Sleepover,” Bucky smiles. “With Natasha.”

Steve looks surprised. But a good surprised. “Oh. Awesome. Maybe she can sleep on our floor one day too.”

That would be nice, Bucky thinks. He tells Steve this.

Steve nods. “Yeah. And, Buck?”

Uh-oh. He has his ‘sincere’ face on.

“I’m.. proud of you, pal. Real proud.”

Bucky smiles. “Yeah.”

 

Natasha is waiting for him. She is sitting in a semi circle of bubble bath and bath bombs, and hair spray and hair curlers and hair dryers (which Bucky only recognises because Steve has one). There’s also two turquoise-y wash bags stuffed to bursting.

“What.”

“I thought we could have a pamper evening,” Natasha explains. “Do mani-pedis, facemasks, drink wine and talk about boys.”

“Why?”

“Its sleepover etiquette,” she says. “Here, let me test these to make sure you aren’t allergic.”

“I won’t be,” he says, but he goes anyway and lets Natasha dab three different pastes on his (flesh and blood) arm. The first one is brown and smells like chocolate. The second is pink and gritty and it smells like strawberry. The third is light green and smells like cucumber and peach.

“Good, you’re fine,” Natasha says. She stands up and opens the wine fridge. “Red or white?”

Bucky doesn’t have a preference, so he shrugs.

She pulls out an unopened bottle of far-too-expensive prosecco. “This?”

Bucky shrugs again, so she pours two glasses and hands one to him.

“Okay. We’ll do a facemask, then nail painting, then we can watch teen movies. Sound like a plan?”

Bucky nods. Yes. That sounds great.

“Which one do you want?” Natasha asks. Bucky picks the chocolate face mask.

“Can I eat it?”

“Wouldn’t recommend,” Natasha says. “But if you really must.”

It takes Natasha no time at all to slather the mask on his face. Her fingers are cold. He licks a little bit of it that drops onto his top lip and it doesn’t taste very nice, after all.

 

Bucky, as it turns out, is a frankly phenomenal nail painter. Natasha chooses a dark, dark red polish and he applies it perfectly to each finger nail. Natasha puts a dark blue (that dries matte- whatever that means. As far as he can tell, it makes his not-shiny) on the nails of his flesh and blood hand. Then she says:

“Lets do makeovers!”

So she puts ‘Titanic’ on the TV, digs through the turquoise-y bags and produces a whole host of things that could definitely be used as a weapon.

Bucky’s seen a mascara wand maybe once in his lifetime (and that time was when Peggy Carter stabbed it into a man’s eye) and the rest of it even less.

Natasha has to be slightly tipsy by now (she’s on her fourth glass of prosecco) but her hands don’t shake when she plucks his eyebrows - verdict: painful. Wouldn’t recommend. She applies dark red/orange eyeshadow perfectly on his eyelids - it tickles, but it makes his eyes look bluer. Would wear again. She smudges black on his lashline (at least, thats what she says she’s doing. Bucky trusts her, even if it feels weird and invasive). And then she brushes through his eyelashes with the mascara - with three different mascaras actually. But the end result is _so cool_. So its not too bad.

There’s a red lipstick that Bucky can only recognise from one that Connie had kept in her purse. He wasn’t even aware he had retained those memories. He doesn’t let Natasha put it on him. She shrugs and lets him put it on her instead.

Natasha takes pictures of him, drinks another glass of wine and settles down to watch the film. Bucky does too, sipping his own glass (although he’s on his second. Not his fourth. Fifth? Who’s keeping track?).

 

By the end of it, they’re both crying off all the mascara. Titanic plus wine was probably not the best way to go, but its the most fun Bucky’s had in a while.

They don’t talk about boys, but that’s okay. Natasha says they can do that next time, so Bucky goes to sleep on her couch. The blue stand-by screen of the TV is two parts distracting and eight parts comforting.

 

He wakes up to the sun filtering through the windows. The news is playing quietly. Natasha is humming something in the kitchen and Bucky isn’t surprised at all to find out that she isn’t one for hangovers. She is Russian, after all.

“Good morning, Sergeant Barnes,” Jarvis announces. “It’s currently seventeen minutes past nine in the am. Captain Rogers will be returning from his run shortly, should you wish to see him. The current occupants of the tower are as follows: Agent Clint Barton, Mr Sam Wilson- who are both still asleep. Sir, who is in his workshop. Agent Romanoff and, of course, yourself. If you find a moment at all, might I suggest bringing Sir some food? It appears he hasn’t eaten since yesterday morning.”

“Morning, Buck,” Natasha says. She’s carrying two plates of pancakes. “And I’ll bring something down to him, Jarvis. Don’t worry.” She doesn’t question why Jarvis told him who’s in the tower and he’s grateful for it. They might be friends, but she’s not close enough to warrant knowing that yet. Not even Steve is.

She hands him a plate. “Thanks,” Bucky tells her and then dribbles maple syrup over the pancakes. Maybe too much maple syrup. It drips over the lip of the plate.

“So, sleep well?”

Bucky nods. “Yeah. Thank you.”

Natasha smiles. “Good. Hey, I have a meeting with Director Fury, Agent Coulson and Clint at ten. You can hang here or do whatever. But I’ll need to leave by then.”

“Okay,” Bucky says. “Can I take the makeup?”

If Natasha is surprised, she doesn’t let on. “Sure. If you want, I’ll take you shopping again and we can get more.”

“That would be nice,” Bucky says. “Thank you.”

They eat until nine thirty, which is when Jarvis interrupts.

“Agent Romanoff, there is a car outside waiting to take you to your meeting. The same car will bring you back here, or wherever you want to go, when the meeting is over.”

“Thanks, Jarvis,” Natasha says. “I’ll see you later, Bucky.” She stands up, grabs a coat and then she’s gone.

Bucky watches her go. Then he picks up the turquoise-y bags, digs through them and fishes out the mascara and eyeshadow.

He applies it on himself and whilst it doesn’t look as good as when Natasha did it, it’s not half bad. Then he cleans up, washes the plates and glasses from last night and switches off the TV. Everything looks sort of empty without the blue stand-by screen.

By then, its nearing ten o’clock.

“Sergeant Barnes, the Captain has returned from his run and is asking for you,” Jarvis says.

“Tell him I’ll be right down,” Bucky replies. He stares at his reflection in the window for a second (what if Steve doesn’t like the make up?) before deciding that Steve’s opinion isn’t the be all and end all (fuck if Steve doesn’t like it. I like it).

 

“Have fun with Nat?” Is what Steve asks. He’s sweating and pink cheeked (and Tony is hanging off of his arm. Which is something Bucky will never be used to, but its nice seeing Steve happy). “Hey, I like your make up.”

Tony turns to stare at him then. “Me, too,” he says. “We can get you some nicer stuff soon.”

And thats that.

 

He and Nat have another sleep over the next week. Only this time, its in his apartment. Because Steve has finally (finally!) moved into Tony’s penthouse. It leaves the whole floor free, so Tony just lets Bucky stay there.

Its nice, if not a bit lonely. But the quiet is nice. He plays lots of video games and practises his aim. The insurance covers all the bullet holes that accumulate in the walls.

 

Natasha and Tony take him shopping. They go to a majorly intimidating store. Natasha hands him mascaras and eyeliners while Tony tries to swipe bright blue and purple eyeshadow on Bucky’s cheek. Bucky gets his revenge, later, when Natasha convinces them to go paintballing (and if Bucky only shot at Tony, well. Thats something he’d rather keep to himself).

 

Maybe the 21st century isn’t so bad after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> i love love love bucky and natasha friendship fics. so i wrote one! howd you like it? comment what you thought!
> 
> i think i made bucky quite childlike. but we’re going with the excuse that hes fresh out of cryo and still learning how to be a human (instead of a machine). hes learning how to live again. 
> 
> i should probably be writing live like kings instead of this bullshit. but writers block. i thought id remedy it with this. only it hasnt quite worked, because now i just want to work on everything but live like kings. oh well. 
> 
> the bath shop they visit, if you couldn’t tell, is lush. bucky is utterly transifxed by the bathbombs. 
> 
> i wish we got to see more of connie in catfw. and that is totally not just because i adore one jenna coleman. 
> 
> maybe ill make this into a series type thing. i dont know yet. ill think about it. 
> 
> anyway; take care everybody! go check out my [tumblr](https://spideysstark.tumblr.com)!


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